Hannibal Square Library

Hannibal Square Library was a library established to serve the Black community in Winter Park, Florida that operated from 1937 to 1979. In 1881, the Hannibal Square neighborhood was built to house to Black families who worked for white residents and visitors and in the railroad or service industry. In 1936, Mertie Graham Grover, a former teacher, was hit by a car and killed in Winter Park. Her husband, Rollins College professor Dr. Edwin O. Grover, started a fund to build a library in her memory in the Hannibal Square neighborhood that would serve the Black residents who were barred by segregation laws from using the county library. Dr. Grover was Professor of Books and taught classes on reading and literature and later started his own publishing company, the Angel Alley Press. He was also instrumental in gaining the land for the future Mead Botanical Garden.